Tools of the Trade

What tools of the trade do you use?
I’m not talking about tools such as hammers and saws. I’m talking about pens, paper, and computers. How do you compose your work?

I have to write everything down in long hand first. I always have, I guess it’s become a habit that I can't seem to break.

I write down my article and go back and forth marking out words and sentences, and drawing lines where I want to restructure a sentence. I normally write on a legal pad. But I’ve been known to write an article on a napkin, paper bag, back of a receipt and even Post-It Notes - just whatever is handy.

When I first started in the newspaper business I wrote my articles out and then typed them before handing them in to my editor. He would edit them and then send them to the typesetter to be set for the paper.

When we changed over to computers, I still continued to write my articles out long hand first. I just seem to get a better feel for the story when I’m actually writing instead of typing. That’s not to say that when I’m typing the story I don’t make changes to it, I do.

The tools of the trade for me are a pen, paper and then a computer.

As I said, when it comes to paper I can write on almost anything. When it comes to my pen, now that’s a different story. I am in a constant search for the perfect pen. I haven’t found it yet, but I’ve found a number of good ones along the way.

For this reason, I’d have to say I collect ink pens. I am the world’s worst about buying more pens just about every time I go into a store and see something different. Sometimes it’s the color of the pen, or shape of the pen, or the design of the pen, or just the pen. I normally like fine point, but I have found some medium points that wrote very well.

And the funny part of it (or crazy part) is that with all the pens I have, half the time I can’t find one that works when I need it. Go figure.

Now for the computer. I don’t have a favorite, just as long as it works for me. I use Microsoft Works to do most of my typing because it works well with the program I have to use at work.

As an author (or inspiring author) what tools of the trade do you use? Do you have a special program that you use to give you a word count? Do you use flash drives to backup your stories?

Do you have a special pen you use to write your stories or maybe one you use when you sign books? Do you have a journal you write in or just any piece of paper will do?

One other thing today - it appears I can’t post about just one thing. I’ve signed up for a book challenge for 2010. Since there is only four weeks left of ReBooWee, I decided it wouldn't be that difficult to sign up for another challenge.

When I stopped by Deb Baker's blog POWERED by BOOKS BLOG yesterday. She was talking about the fact she had signed up for not one, but four book challenges for 2010. After looking over the challenges, I decided to give one a try.

I’ve signed up for The Thriller and Suspense Challenge at Book Chick City. The challenge is to read 12 books in this category, anything from cozy to hard-boiled to supernatural suspense by the end of the year. Included with the sign up is a list of all the sub-genres and their descriptions. I was number 117 to sign up yesterday, Jan. 4.

I thought there would be no problem with meeting this challenge, that’s one book a month. I’ve gotten into reading various other genres, but I should still be able to do at least one mystery/suspense book a month.

There were several other challenges on Deb’s site, but I don’t think I’m going to try any others ….. at least not this week. I’d like to know who makes up these neat buttons and badges for these challenges.

Have you signed up for any challenges? Have you ever thought about designing your own challenge?

Happy reading my friends.